BREAKING: Rep. Lantos, Only Holocaust Survivor in Congress, Dies

by James D. Besser
Washington correspondent

Rep. Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor in Congress, died on Monday.

Lantos, 80, was recently diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus; in January he announced he would not seek a 15th term in the House. He died at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland.

As chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Lantos was able to combine his two top political interests - human rights and support for Israel. He was also a relentless crusader against anti-Semitism around the world.

A Hungarian Jew, Lantos joined a partisan group fighting the Nazis. In interviews, he attributed his survival to the refuge he found in a safe house established by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg - and said his

longstanding interest in human rights stemmed from his wartime experiences.

As a member of Congress, Lantos spearheaded the effort to make Wallenberg an honorary U.S. citizen and pressed the former Soviet Union to reveal long-classified information about the rescuer's fate.

(For Lantos' official account of his Holocaust-era experiences, click here)

Lantos was in the forefront of congressional efforts to document and fight anti-Semitism. He also played a significant role in the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Capitol Hill veterans describe Lantos - courtly, loquacious but tough - as a throwback to an earlier generation of lawmakers who were able to work across party and ideological lines.

The reaction from Jewish groups to the news was swift.

"For years people have looked to Congressman Tom Lantos as the conscience of the United States Congress," said Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA). "Chairman Lantos was a leader on so many issues of concern to the Jewish community such as anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and Israel."

William Daroff, vice president for public policy of the United Jewish Communities (UJC), said Lantos "was a great friend of the Jewish community and the Jewish Federation system. As Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Lantos steered a steady ship during a particularly tumultuous time in American foreign policy."

"We mourn the loss of Congressman Lantos," said Nathan Diament, Washington director for the Orthodox Union. "He was a proud supporter of Israel and a proud Jew. His presence will be sorely missed."

Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, added that Lantos was "a passionate voice against the genocide in Darfur. At the same time, he was a strong proponent of important domestic policies, from education to environmentalism."

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said Lantos "helped to project the image of a vibrant, engaged Judaism in America, a Judaism that would not succumb to the destruction of Hitler but would reaffirm our tradition as a religion pursuing the cause of justice for all people."

In announcing he would leave Congress at the end of the year, Lantos said in January "It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."